History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

36S MORMONISM AND POLYGAMY.
community and think to rule, or to have any part in
the government as at present existing, and following
the line of law and order. This is why the people of
Missouri and Illinois drove them out—not because of
their religion or immorality, for their religion was
nothing to the gentiles, and their morals were as good
or better than those of their neighbors. It may as
well be understood and agreed upon that, in the
United States or out of the United States, the Mormons
are, and ever will be, a people self-contained and
apart.
Thus the matter continues to be discussed by the
world at large, as a question of theology or morality,
and not of active political and judicial control, or of
the domination of a politico-religious organization,
with aspirations and purposes diverse from those of
the American people generally.
The theory and assumption of the Mormon church
as a politico-religious organization is that the church
is a government of God, and not responsible to any
other government on earth conflicting with it, if not
indeed bound from necessity to overturn and supplant
all civil governments. This assumption lies at the very
foundation of the Mormon creed; and from this point,
in practical operation as well as in theory, there is a
divergence between that organization and the United
States government. Grant that any man believes
what the Mormons believe, say their enemies, and
where will his allegiance rest—with the government of
the United States, or with this politico-religious organization
which ought to and will, as they imagine,
supplant all other governments? Many of them are
alien born, and, from the treatment they receive on
their arrival, learn to distrust the government of the
United States, and to clina- all the closer to the institutions
of their sect.
" It is not consistent that the people of God," says
Orson Pratt, "shonlcl orpvmize or be subject to manmade
governmev.es. IT it were so, they could never